This column has not always made the cheeriest reading for Toto Wolff and his Mercedes team, but it comes to his defence against the ‘Just let Lewis race’ devotees – those who think the world champion should be allowed free rein to call his own strategy.

The only way Wolff and his team of boffins could do this is: a) if there were other teams contesting the race, as opposed to Mercedes being left solely to devise how best to maintain a one-two finish; b) if one-way radios were introduced and team numbers were cut down to, say, 100 people.

The one-way radio would be from driver to pit wall, so that he could tell his bosses when he wants to come in to change tyres. He would, perforce, base his timing on intuition rather than data collected by the team.

Toto Wolff and his Mercedes team play a crucial role in the success of Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton won his third Formula 1 world title this season, which is his second with Mercedes

Nico Rosberg won the final race of the season for Mercedes and is seen celebrating with Wolff

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Cutting staff numbers is the correlation. Why do you need hundreds of engineers number-crunching when a race essentially boils down to one man in the car?

The sporting upside would be that, at a stroke, Formula One turned into an all-round test of its highly paid drivers, making them what they ought to be: the stars of the show.

It would also cut spending, thus evening out the disparity between the existing rich teams and the poorer ones. Isn’t that what cost-cap advocates (of which I am not one) want?

Alas, this scenario is pie in the sky. It is about as likely to happen as turning professional sport amateur again.

So while the existing rules exist – two-way radios, engineers with information at their fingertips – and with nobody adequately challenging Mercedes’ superiority, we must accept that, however boring it is, a team that spend £240million a year on winning must make sensible choices in their own best interests.

A discussion around the dinner table after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: who is the best driver any of us had seen live? The names that rose to the top were Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

One of our group of four hacks doubted Alonso was worthy of that company; another said we could not be sure because he had not driven against a good enough team-mate (except Hamilton to whom he lost by an extremely narrow margin).

Fernando Alonso - one of the best to watch on the track in top form in the history of Formula 1?

Michael Schumacher's time at Ferrari makes him widely considered as one of the best to see compete in F1

Hamilton, now a three time World champion, also deserves consideration as one of the best ever

There was general agreement that he could not build a team around him a la Schumacher, and even a big admirer like me thought he displayed an unhelpful volatility when he did not get his own way within the team.

Sebastian Vettel, who was close to the top quartet, was deemed to have improved his standing in the season just finished, by wringing the best out of a second-tier car more than by hitting sixes on a flat track, as it were, in an untouchable Red Bull.

I am sorry to report that Lewis Hamilton cancelled his customary media engagements with the national press in Abu Dhabi. That this was countenanced by Mercedes is yet another sign of their unwillingness to control their superstar driver.

Niki Lauda, the Mercedes chairman, is probably the most helpful influence on Hamilton. Other than for him, Lewis is surrounded by a circus of fawners and sycophants. This fact prompted Ron Dennis to express concern at Hamilton’s recent erratic behaviour – his self-confessed hard partying and car crash.

Hamilton cancelled his customary media engagements in Abu Dhabi after the final race of the season

Hamilton (second right) parties with Hollywood actor Will Smith and friends in Miami in October

Hamilton uploaded a picture to his Instagram on Monday of some celebrations in Abu Dhabi

The 30-year-old Hamilton also shared an image with his followers of him waking up on Monday

I would suggest, again, that he needs an intelligent, grounded, Formula One-savvy manager like Julian Jakobi. He was good enough to look after Lewis’s hero, Ayrton Senna. But if not Jakobi, someone cut from the same cloth.

It is not my habit to read the comments written under my stories. Some are sensible – you know who you are – but many are bile-filled, one-eyed, badly argued, illiterate and ill-informed.

Some readers, it has been pointed out to me, call me ‘McEnvy’, derived from my supposed jealousy of Hamilton’s success.

If I may pierce this myopia for a second: I criticise Lewis when I see reason to do so, and praise him, often lavishly, when it is merited. That is my job. But I can assure you that I have no covetous desire to hang around with LA rap stars.

Thanks one and all – even my ‘haters’ – for reading. See you next season.